Concert Review
Shinedown
Papa Roach
Spiritbox
St. Joseph’s Health Amphitheater
Syracuse, NY
Wednesday September 13, 2023
Review/Photos: Joseph Suto
Shinedown brought their Revolutions Live tour to the St. Joseph’s Health Amphitheater Wednesday evening. The show marked the final show at the Amphitheater for the 2023 season. There was no better way to close it out as Shinedown along with Papa Roach and Spiritbox ended everything on an extremely high note.
Shinedown are still touring for their 2022 release Planet Zero. They last played here almost a year to date and if you thought last year was good well they once again topped themselves. This tour seemed to feature a lineup geared more in synch with the band’s music. Papa Roach are no strangers as they have toured with Shinedown many times over the years. The up and coming band Spiritbox set the tone for the evening which each band subsequently brought everything up a notch higher.
Shinedown is of course vocalist Brent Smith, drummer Barry Kerch, guitarist Zach Myers and bassist Eric Bass. These guys have been a solid unit since 2008 and it shows how well they gel and play off each other.
Highlights from their set included “I’ll Follow You” and a pounding fan-favorite “Enemies” both from 2012’s Amaryllis. What can be said about the fantastic cover of Skynyrds “Simple Man”. What has clearly become the biggest moment of the night was the performance of what is surely one of the best the band has ever written in “A Symptom Of Being Human”. Truly one of the biggest highlights from the Planet Zero album.
Where does the band go from here? After two solid years of touring for this album the band will be turning their attention (attention) to writing the follow up. Having said that I don’t expect them to be out on the road much until they complete the follow-up. The band is really going to have a hard time to write up the set list for the next tour if the new material on the next album is as strong as Planet Zero.
Shinedown Photos
More on Shinedown
Shinedown Planet Zero links:
Album: https://shinedown.lnk.to/planetzero
“A Symptom of Being Human” Music Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmMOMK5c4EY
“A Symptom of Being Human” Pop Remix: https://shinedown.lnk.to/asobhRemix
“A Symptom of Being Human” Acoustic Version: https://shinedown.lnk.to/ASOBHAcoustic
Papa Roach Photos
Papa Roach put on a dazzling set that was full of high energy and aggressive. Frontman Jacoby Shaddix was a ball of energy from the start. The band has been together since 2007 which explained why they seemed to have everything dialed in. Currently the band consists of guitarist Jerry Horton, bassist Tobin Esperance and drummer Tony Palermo. Anthony Esperance, the brother of Tobin rounded out the live band.
As Shaddix announced how “Scars” was the song that saved the band, it goes to show how powerful the song is. The band is also big on suicide prevention as they took a moment to alert the crowd with a message about that. The show closed with what else, the song that put Papa Roach on the map “Last Resort”. Overall a solid set by one of the hardest working bands that always give 110% and it doesn’t matter if they play for 45 minutes, 60 minutes or 90 minutes, they leave it all up on the stage.
Spiritbox Photos
Spiritbox opened the show with a very spirited, aggressive 30-minute set. The band features vocalist Courtney LaPlante, guitarist Mike Stringer, bassist Josh Gilbert and drummer Zev Rosenberg. Be on the lookout for this band as they have a very bright future ahead.
